Author Description

Zarita heads off to the Imperium Senate in 1292. However, powerful men began their own personal attempts to gain ultimate power. Legate Emeryk set his sights on eliminating and replacing President Snarry. Unknown to all, three of the wealthiest men in the Imperium, the Consortium, had their own plans. Now that their secret support of the Gamelon-3 "milking procedure" had ended, they set about cornering the market on fuel needed by virtually every spaceship in the Imperium. They also began devising a way to remove their lackey, President Snarry. Throughout the Imperium, recovery from the devastating war with the Federation begins, with many others planning their own "moves." Power plays soon began, starting with terrorist bombings on Proxima Prime. Then, the Consortium had President Snarry assassinated and attempted to get Legate Emeryk promoted to temporary-President. However, behind the scenes, Emperor Kino finally was able to trace the money trail and proved that Emeryk had been the man behind the abduction and mutilation of Queen Amy and Jan and the assassination of Neva. When the Consortium finds out about Kino's discoveries, that places their current plans in dire peril, and they devise a brilliant plan: put a pair of morons in as President and Senate President, namely Zarita and her wife, thereby highly distracting the Emperor. Later, when the morons make a complete mess, Emperor Kino will lose an enormous amount of respect within the Imperium. Back on Ashford-5, mentales gifted were now members and leaders of the many guilds throughout Tierra. They also had found many of the giant crystals and began their own push to power, power long denied them by their rulers. When the rulers and towers once more began inventing weapons of mass destruction, the guilds decided they'd had enough. With Queen Amy's backing, they waged economic war against the towers and rulers who threatened to annihilate Tierra. During the war, when the Imperium began to lose badly, they setu